ROUGHLY A YEAR ago Brendan Quigley left for New York in search of work, telling disappointed Laois supporters that ‘there’s no point being on a county panel and drawing social welfare.’
A year on though, despite captaining the New York senior team in last year’s Connacht championship and insisting that he was very happy in his new surroundings, the 28-year-old is back, and “back for good”.
According to a spokesman for his local club Timahoe, Quigley is building a house in the area and has no plans on returning to America.
“I’d say he is home for good, things have picked up a bit here and he’s got a house. Well he’s bought a house and he’s renovating it,” a spokesman told TheScore.ie.
Quigley’s football season was cut short this year at the hands of Mayo in the opening round of the Connacht championship. The big midfielder managed a point from midfield in a heavy 22-point defeat.
But now that he’s home there’s no guarantee that he will be lining out for Laois in the 2015 season. In fact his club spokesman revealed that there are rumours circulating that ”he wasn’t interested, but that can change of course.”
For now though Quigley will have have to stick to the hurling. Ineligible to represent his club for the remainder of the summer having already played in the New York club football championship, Quigley can only represent his club’s hurlers. And according to Timahoe GAA that’s exactly what he’s doing.
The Laois man had previously criticised the hierarchy of the GAA for not doing more to help inter county players find employment, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll bury the hatchet and make a much needed return to Tomás Ó Flatharta’s panel in the new year.
